Nature abounds with structures built by animals other than humans, or animal architecture, as it is commonly termed, such as termite mounds, wasp and beehives, burrow complexes of rodents, beaver dams, elaborate nests of birds, and webs of spiders.  Often, these structures incorporate sophisticated features such as ventilation, temperature regulation, structural strength, multiple escape routes, traps, bait, special-purpose chambers and many other features.  They may be created by individuals or complex societies of social animals with different forms carrying out specialised roles.  These constructions may arise from complex building behaviour of animals such as in the case of night-time nests for chimpanzees, from inbuilt neural responses, which feature prominently in the construction of bird songs, or triggered by hormone release as in the case of domestic sows, or as emergent properties from simple instinctive responses and interactions, as exhibited by termites, or combinations of these.  The process of building such structures may involve learning and communication, and in some cases, even aesthetics.  Tool use may also be involved in building structures by animals.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structures_built_by_animals

"Animal Architecture," by Ingo Arndt and Jürgen Tautz, with a foreword by Jim Brandenburg, is a beautiful new science/photography book exploring the mystery of nature through the "complex and elegant structures that animals create both for shelter and for capturing prey."  Arndt is a world-renowned nature photographer based in Germany, whose work you may have seen in National Geographic, GEO and BBC Wildlife.  See pictures at http://boingboing.net/2014/04/22/animal-architecture-an-aw.html

The Packard Motor Car Company comes to life again in America's Packard Museum. The museum was founded in 1992 by Dayton attorney and long-time car collector Bob Signom.  Located in the original Packard Dealership Building which was built in 1917, the museum has officially taken the name of the original dealership - The Citizens Motorcar Company - but has become known as "America's Packard Museum".  The January 1998 edition of Car Collector magazine named the museum one of the "Top Ten" Museums in The United States.  In 2004, the Society of Automotive Historians conferred the prestigious James J. Bradley Award upon the Museum for its exemplary efforts in preserving motor vehicle resource materials.  Signom brought The Citizens Motorcar Company "back to life," as the only restored Packard dealership operating as a museum.  The museum features over 50 automobiles on display in the restored Art Deco showroom, service department and pavillion.  In addition, significant artifacts from the Packard Motorcar Company are on display.  420 S. Ludlow St.  Dayton, Ohio 45402   Office 937.226-1710  http://www.americaspackardmuseum.org/the_story.html

Find recipients of the James J. Bradley Distinguished Service Awards at http://www.autohistory.org/index.php/james-j-bradley-distinguished-service-award

The noble gases make a group of chemical elements with similar properties:  under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low chemical reactivity.  The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), and the radioactive radon (Rn).  Read much more and see graphics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_gas  Hear excerpts from Daniel Gawthrop's Four Noble Gases (Argon-Krypton-Xenon) played by David Pickering (1996 Wolff/Bales Recital Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS) Grace Notes Media 0701 (the last piece of a two-hour program) from 102:50 to 112:17 at http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2014/1434/

Be an armchair traveler and visit the villas of Tuscany at http://www.villas-of-tuscany.info/

Using a 3D printer in the Maker Lab at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, a Boy Scout troop printed resin wheels for its robot team.  In Chattanooga, a man used a 3D printer at the public library to create a robotic device that allows his child who was born without arms or legs to eat independently.  In Kansas, a high school junior created a functioning prosthetic hand for a nine-year-old family friend using the 3D printer at the Johnson County Public Library.  What are 3D printers capable of?  What are the legal implications of 3D printing in the library?  Read about it at http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/3d_printing_tipsheet_version_8_Final.pdf

Like Victor Frankenstein, Tony Dighera was determined to bring a new creature to life. Though he was fairly new to farming, Mr. Dighera saw profit to be made in strangely shaped pumpkins.  So he created a “pumpkinstein.”  Grown in a plastic mold, the pumpkins bear the distinctive face of the Frankenstein monster, and Mr. Dighera has harvested roughly 5,500 of them in 2014.  With a slight smile, a wide button nose, a slightly furrowed brow and ears sticking out just slightly, the pumpkins are easy to mistake for something carved from wax. 

“People never believe it’s real the first time they see it; they all want to touch it to make sure,” Mr. Dighera said, holding one of his creations on his 40-acre organic farm north of Los Angeles, as workers harvested cilantro and dill one recent morning.  “The point was to make something that would get attention.”  Their distinctive if unnatural shape is so far a major success.  Mr. Dighera sold out his crop to suppliers months ago, offering the pumpkins wholesale for $75 each.  Retailers expect each to fetch $100 or more in the weeks leading up to Halloween.  Halloween has grown beyond the simple days of trick-or-treating and into a $7 billion business, according to the National Retail Federation, as retailers go to greater lengths each year to try to surpass the previous season.  Just over $2 billion was spent last year on candy alone, according to industry figures.  And long ago it stopped being just a sweets-fueled holiday for children.  Among the biggest money earners are adult costumes, with costs typically ranging from $30 to well over $100.  And last year, consumers spent $310 million on costumes for their pets.  Decorations now account for nearly a third of Halloween spending, and the fast-growing category is one of the most competitive aspects of the industry.  Cue pumpkinstein and Mr. Dighera, who got his start in oddly shaped produce several years ago, after coming across a website that featured square watermelons grown in Japan.  In 2010, Mr. Dighera began experimenting with plastic molds and watermelon varieties.  Was this mold too sharp, that plastic too strong, the shade too dark?  If the fruits were too small, they would not take the shape, but if they were too big, they would crack.  After trying dozens of seed varieties and experimenting with how much sun the crops received, he produced a sweet, crisp, red-fleshed, cube-shaped watermelon.  Elated, he moved on to a heart-shaped mold.  This year, Mr. Dighera sold the square and heart-shaped watermelons for $40 each, primarily through local upscale markets.  At the same time, he figured out how to use a mold to imprint logos:  Whole Foods received its own branded melons, the letters perfectly pressed into the rind.  It took Mr. Dighera 27 varieties of pumpkin — and roughly $400,000 — before he found the right one to take the monster shape.   Jennifer Medina  See picture at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/us/its-alive-and-it-grows-into-a-jack-o-lantern.html

How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson is a six part series that reveals the story behind the ideas that made modern life possible.  Airs Wednesday, October 15-November 12, 2014 on PBS.  Find details and watch the first two episodes, Clean and Time, at http://video.pbs.org/program/how-we-got-now/  

Future episodes will be on cold, light, sound and glass. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1205  October 17, 2014  On this date in 1903, Nathanael West, American author and screenwriter, was born.  On this date in 1910, Ester Wier, American author was born.